Gene Luen Yang's Blog, page 5
September 21, 2016
Paths & Portals Book Tour
SAT 9/24/16 – MON 10/3/16 | ALL OVER AMERICA!!!
I’m going on book tour for Secret Coders Volume 2: Paths & Portals!
If you’re in the area, please come say hi! Would love to talk to you about comics and coding!
New Super-Man
illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic, Richard Friend, and Hi-Fi Color
published by DC Comics
recommended for Seventh Grade and Up
At the end of my Superman run, DC Comics and I began talking about what I might do next for them. When they first pitched me the idea of a Chinese Super-Man, I said NO. Superman is all about Truth, Justice, and the American Way. What does that mean in the context of modern China? There were so many complexities, both political and cultural. I just didn’t think I could handle it.
But then I flew down to DC Comics’ Burbank offices for a series of meetings. One was with Jim Lee, DC’s Co-Publisher and the originator of the Chinese Super-Man idea. Another was with Geoff Johns, the mastermind behind DC’s Rebirth relaunch. By the end, I began to hear a teenage Chinese Super-Man’s voice in my head. If you’re a writer, you know that when this happens, you just have to roll with it.
So I said YES.
The result is New Super-Man, a monthly series about Kong Kenan, a 17-year-old kid in Shanghai who inherits Clark Kent’s powers. The art by Viktor Bogdanovic, Richard Friend, and Hi-Fi Color is vibrant and fun. Hope you’ll check it out!
September 9, 2016
In Conversation with Mike DiMartino
MON 10/10/16 | MENLO PARK, CA
People. Listen. This is a big deal.
Michael DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, is coming to the Bay Area! I’m going to be moderating a discussion with him at Kepler’s in Menlo Park on Monday, October 10 at 7pm. He’ll be there talk about Rebel Genius, his new middle grade novel series!
Seriously, this your chance to get all our Avatar gear signed! This is your chance to show half of Bryke your Air Nomad tattoo! This is your chance to fly your Fire Nation flag high!
And it’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of a brand-new fantasy world!
Michael DiMartino in Conversation with Gene Luen Yang
Monday 10/10/16 at 7pm.
Kepler’s Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
More info here.
August 30, 2016
Reading Without Walls Video Podcast
I’m trying my best to do this every month! Here are the episodes we’ve done so far:
Reading Without Walls Video Podcast
What’s Reading Without Walls, you ask? Find out here.
This video podcast is just me having awkward conversations with people I admire. I’m trying my best to do one of these every month! Here are the episodes we’ve done so far:
May 13, 2016
The Reading Without Walls Challenge
So this crazy thing happened this past January. The Children’s Book Council, Every Child A Reader, and the Library of Congress appointed me the fifth National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature!
Every National Ambassador picks a platform. Mine is Reading Without Walls. I want every kid — every reader, really — to explore the world through books. Books have played a vital role in getting me outside of my comfort zone. I believe they can do the same for you.
As National Ambassador, I issue you a challenge! I challenge you to read without walls in one of three ways:
1. Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you.
2. Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about.
3. Read a book in a format that you don’t normally read for fun. This might be a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, a picture book, or a hybrid book.
If you really want to go for the gold star, read a book that fits all three criteria!
When you finish, take a photo of you and the book (or just the book if you’re shy) and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ReadingWithoutWalls. You’ll inspire others to do the same!
If you are a teacher, librarian, or bookseller, you can challenge your students, patrons, and customers to read without walls, too! Check out what San Francisco’s Live Oak School did this past school year!
Read without walls and see what happens. I bet it’ll be something amazing!
The Reading Without Walls Challenge
So this crazy thing happened this past January. The Library of Congress, Children’s Book Council, and Every Child A Reader appointed me the fifth National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature!
Every National Ambassador picks a platform. Mine is Reading Without Walls. I want every kid — every reader, really — to explore the world through books. Books have played a vital role in getting me outside of my comfort zone. I believe they can do the same for you.
As National Ambassador, I issue you a challenge! I challenge you to read without walls in one of three ways:
1. Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you.
2. Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about.
3. Read a book in a format that you don’t normally read for fun. This might be a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, a picture book, or a hybrid book.
If you really want to go for the gold star, read a book that fits all three criteria!
When you finish, take a photo of you and the book (or just the book if you’re shy) and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ReadingWithoutWalls. You’ll inspire others to do the same!
If you are a teacher, librarian, or bookseller, you can challenge your students, patrons, and customers to read without walls, too! Check out what San Francisco’s Live Oak School did this past school year!
Read without walls and see what happens. I bet it’ll be something amazing!
April 9, 2016
Reading Without Walls at Live Oak
Melissa McAvoy, librarian at Live Oak School in San Francisco, issued the Reading Without Walls challenge to her school!
She made an awesome bulletin board promoting the initiative. You see all those little book-shaped stickers? Every one of them represents a book that was read by one of her students!
Here’s what Melissa said about the challenge: “What is so wonderful is that most of these books usually don’t circulate and the kids found that they loved them.”
Thank you so much for spreading the word about the awesomeness of books, Melissa!
More proof that librarians are THE BEST.
January 26, 2016
Unboxing A Package from DC Comics
When I first heard about unboxing videos I thought they sounded so stupid. I checked one out anyway. Forty unboxing videos later, I must admit that I understand the appeal.
Decided to make one of my own!
January 23, 2016
So this crazy thing happened…
On January 4, the Library of Congress, Every Child A Reader, and the Children’s Book Council appointed me the fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. My wife and I flew out to Washington D.C. for a fancy inauguration ceremony. I wore a fancy suit and got a fancy medal. I gave a speech to a class of local elementary school kids.
Librarian of Congress David Mao and me. (He’s the good-looking one.)
We hung out with David Mao, the Acting Librarian of Congress; John Cole, the Librarian of Congress Emeritus; and Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn Dixie) and Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales), both of whom are former ambassadors.
Kate DiCamillo, Jon Scieszka, and me. For some reason, Jon’s medal is waaay heavier than Kate’s and mine.
It was a pretty amazing day. If you’re interested, you can find my speech here.
The post of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature was created in 2008, and the whole point is to get more kids reading and kids reading more. Every ambassador has a platform. For example, Ms. DiCamillo, my immediate predecessor, chose the platform Stories Connect Us. She spoke about how books can bring communities together.
My platform is Reading Without Walls. I want kids to explore the world through books, to read outside of their comfort zones. Specifically, I want them – and you – to do one of three things:
1. Read a book with someone on the cover who doesn’t look like you or live like you. Books are a great way to get to know people who are different from us. By reading other people’s stories, we can develop insight and compassion.
2. Read a book about a topic that you find intimating. My pet project in this area is promoting books about science, technology, engineering, and math. Often, people think of stories and science as completely separate, but they’re not. Stories are a great way to learn science.
3. Read a book in a format that you’ve never tried before. If you only read books with words, give a graphic novel a try. If you only read graphic novels, try a prose novel, a novel in verse, or a hybrid (half graphic, half prose) novel.
I can’t tell you how excited and honored I am about my appointment. I can’t wait to connect with readers of all ages around the country.
The Children’s Book Council and I are also talking about how to use technology to engage readers. Nothing concrete yet. More to come, so stay tuned!
